We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Monday, February 26. 2018

“So now we know that the Parkland shooter was known to the local police, who did nothing. He was known to the FBI, who did nothing. His unstable behavior was known to teachers, who did nothing. The armed guard at the school stood there with his thumb up his butt while the the school was being shot up, and did nothing. In other words, we have a avalanche of failures from the highest levels down to the lowest. Every rule, every procedure, every safeguard that was put in place to stop these shootings from happening failed to stop this one from happening because the adults who were entrusted with the responsibility to keep shootings from happening did not do their f*ing jobs. Everybody knew the kid had serious problems, but nobody wanted to step up and actually do anything about it. And now we’re treated to the spectacle of these fake ‘townhall’ meetings organized by left-wing agitators who teach the kids to recite the anti-gun talking points that they want them to say and we’re supposed to just nod our heads and pretend that all we need to do is pass a few more laws and then everything will be just ducky. Sometimes I think we’re all just cardboard cutouts living in a Potemkin village."

In my local school district, a teacher is requiring every kid in her class to write a pro-gun-control letter to a congressman, which she will collect and mail. If they take the opposite position, she'll flunk them. The kid is giving into the pressure for fearing of a failing grade, which is disappointing. I told his grandmother to advise him to write a separate letter to the congressman exposing the deal. At least some staffer will know what to do with the pile of letters all arriving together.

Regarding the above, texas99: If that's true, then you need to document it and send it to the school board, the county school district and commissioner's court, and copy your state senator, state representative, and the State Education Board. Then, if you're in a metropolitan area, you need to plug into the Republican party's operatives to progress it.

Looking at the spectacle, it seems pretty clear that the students in Florida have professional backing. The young spokesman, David Hogg, is a drama student with parents who are apparently (1) a ex-CNN producer and (2) an ex-FBI agent - in-house passing familiarity with the way systems work, in other words. The group of students appears to have had expert coaching, appearance preparation, body positioning, script support, and best of all, some first rate shielding from any kind of potentially embarrassing coverage. He reminds me of a young Joseph Goebbels.

But then, CNN would never script anything, would they (recalls video of CNN setting up a muslim protest news video in London post-terrorist attack, and the recent video of Mr.Hogg rehearsing lines to live camera, prior to the official take).

I can't document it; I learned about it from the student's grandmother, who won't reveal the name of the teacher for fear of exposing the student. However, I'm telling many people about it, including my elected representatives, so they'll know what to think if they get a bunch of letters from a public school class. I'm hoping eventually the word will get out far enough to expose whoever the teacher is, without its being too obvious which student blew the whistle on her.

To quote Achilles:"
All they had to do was keep their heads down and they would get a bump in November like the out of power Party always does. .....They decided to do a recruiting drive for the NRA instead."

And, though I hope this is an exaggeration, it appears that Broward Co actually impeded first responders.
I think that the media is way underestimating what the general public is taking away from this, which is to say Don't count on law enforcement to intervene and save you.

I hope you're right, but I'm running into a disturbing number of conservatives, normally reliable on the 2d amendment, who want to debate whether arming teachers was 100% safe--might they not misplace a gun? Couldn't there be a mistake? What about friendly fire? I try to focus them on the right comparison, which is not between perfection and arming teachers, but between arming teachers and leaving students helpless in the face of the next inevitable school shooting.

Broward County officials did not like the statistics. To their way of thinking, minority students accounted for more than their share of detentions, suspensions, expulsions – and arrests. Rather than seek ways to improve behavior (too much like work) officials diluted the definition of misbehavior so the statistics were more to their liking. Insane. The sheriff and superintendent of schools colluded on this path which made their stats look better but allowed a sick kid to slide over and over again – a sick kid who proclaimed he wanted to shoot up the school, and then followed through without hindrance.

I wish I could put it better into words, but there is something wrong – backward – with the thinking here. Statistics and sociological studies are useful. They can point you in the right direction. But action, to be remedial, must be focused on the individual regardless of into what identity group that individual is all too arbitrarily categorized by theoretical "experts". Troubled and troublesome individuals may tend to flock together but must be treated individually nonetheless. Agency and responsibility, ultimately, are individual. Remedy one by one, and honest stats will reflect your progress. Tweaking the stats does nothing to fix the problem. Appearances are not everything.

The reason one cannot do that is that Hispanics have twice (or more) the rate of violent crime, while African-Americans have 8 or maybe 10 times the rate. If you go individual by individual, you will end up with numbers that reveal this. That's why schools have changed their policies to look at group rates and try to even them out. The reality was unacceptable, so unreality was ordered.

Your approach reveals that you are actually trying to solve the problems of violence. While not entirely irrelevant, fixing the problem is secondary. The cultural leaders have decided that other problems must be solved instead, under the cover of talking about this one. The rest of us are essentially giving them permission to do this.

There was an interesting commentary on another blog. The blogger - I think a Californian - has a wife nearing retirement who is a teacher in what sounds like an inner-city school. He asked her what she'd do if a shooter entered her classroom, and her response was she'd try to shield the kids, even if she died. Then he asked what she'd do if she happened to have a gun to hand, even if she wasn't trained to use same, and she said she'd try to use it. Then he asked which way she'd rather go - shielding the kids while unarmed, or with a gun in her hand. She responded "with a gun". And this was from a family who don't own firearms, and a woman who's never ever fired one. She figured it out.

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